Ohio Injuries: Children Ages 5-14 Years

Injuries are a leading cause of death and disability among children 5-14 years of age in Ohio. Not only are injuries the leading cause of death for this age group, but non-fatal injuries have considerable long-term medical and economic consequences. Increased efforts to prevent injuries to children are necessary as the number of injuries continues to rise. The following data come from the Injury in Ohio report.*

Health Care Resource Utilization

From 2005 through 2007, injuries to children ages 5-14 years resulted in an annual average of:

229,595 Emergency Department Visits

15,499 EMS Runs

3,417 Inpatient Hospitalizations

108 Fatalities

The number of emergency department visits due to injuries increased 17.3% from 2005 to 2007

Injury-Related Hospitalizations

Injury-related hospitalizations in 2005-2007 resulted in an annual average of:

Location at Time of Injury

Among children and adolescents 5-14 years of age, injuries requiring an EMS run were most likely to occur at home

Fatalities

The number of deaths per year dropped 42.3% from 2005 to 2007

73.0% of fatal injuries among children and adolescents ages 5-14 years were unintentional, followed by homicide (17.3%) and suicide (9.3%)

The leading causes of death due to injury for children and adolescents 5-14 years old in Ohio were:

Mechanisms of Injury

Among those with a recorded external cause of injury, unintentional injuries accounted for 85.9% of injuries requiring hospitalization, while self-inflicted injuries accounted for another 10.5%

Distributions of causes of injury were similar for males and females with two exceptions. Poisonings occurred more often among females (17.2%) than males (6.6%), while struck by/against injuries occurred more frequently among males (13.1%) than females (5.8%)

The following represents the leading causes of injury for each level of care:

*Data for this report were obtained from the Ohio Department of Public Safety, the Ohio Hospital Association and the Ohio Department of Health. This research brief is part of a series reporting on leading causes of injury among selected age groups in Ohio.